Hong Kong's Escalators Give Areas a Lift

By

Chester Yung

Updated March 6, 2013 3:01 a.m. ET

HONG KONG—Mass transit has long spurred real-estate development. In this mountainous city, escalators are boosting some sleepy neighborhoods.

The Way Up

The Central Mid-levels escalator, which rises some 120 vertical meters in a bit less than a kilometer, turned a steep slope into a vibrant shopping and entertainment district. Rosa de Acosta/The Wall Street Journal

Hong Kong already is home to the world's longest outdoor covered escalator system: the 20-year-old Central-Mid-levels escalator. The moving walkway, which rises some 120 vertical meters in a bit less than a kilometer, turned a steep slope into a vibrant shopping and entertainment district.

Now, the city is building one more neighborhood escalator and is planning a second, and two of the city's leading real-estate developers are planning residential projects nearby.

The smaller of the two escalators is partially open and expected to be completed in the third quarter at a cost of $7.7 million. The moving stairway rises more than 75 meters up from an under-construction subway station in the neighborhood of Sai Ying Pun on the west side of Hong Kong Island, about five kilometers from the city's skyscraper-filled Central District.

Frankie Chan,
a property agent who works near the new escalator, said commercial rents have more than doubled in the last two years, from about HK$15,000 (US$1,930) a month for a 55-75 square-meter space to more than HK$40,000 now.

Property Report

The new Centre Street escalator is helping draw restaurants to the area.
Rosa de Acosta/The Wall Street Journal

But that isn't keeping businesses away.

"I see more high-end restaurants are coming in that neighborhood," said
Sidney Lee,
district councilor from Centre Street. "It will insert some commercial element into a residential neighborhood."

Dan Silva,
who opened a cafe next to the Centre Street escalator last November, said he chose the location due to its proximity to Hong Kong University.

"The escalator was kind of an added bonus but definitely a major factor in our final feasibility analysis," Mr. Silva said, adding that many new restaurants were opening near the walkway.

Wheelock Properties
,
one of the city's major developers, is also launching a residential project near the new escalators, partly due to the prospect of improved traffic. The escalator helps create "a more convenient and vibrant city life for residents in the region," a Wheelock spokesman said.

More than 55,000 people a day ride the city's main escalator, which rises from Central to the residential district of Mid-levels. It runs down toward Central in the morning and then up for the rest of the day. By evening, it is filled with bar-hopping young professionals.

The escalator, originally built to ease traffic on the narrow street, was initially criticized by the city's director of audit as a costly "white elephant" because it overshot its budget by 153% and failed to reduce traffic. But as soon as it opened, it became one of the more popular attractions in Hong Kong, and developers soon followed.

The party scene and the change it will bring to quiet streets have made some residents oppose the escalators.

"Hong Kong has a stair culture which is typified by a certain slowness and rhythm that has defined a way of life and attitude in the areas of the city with steep topography," said
Melissa Cate
Christ, an associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Hong Kong.

These concerns are weighing on the second planned escalator, which would cover about 460 meters along the tranquil Pound Lane and along
Blake Garden,
one of the city's oldest public parks, about five blocks from the existing Central-Mid-levels escalator. It is expected to cost more than HK$200 million and take more than three years to build.

Kathy Siu,
the district councilor who has been the driving force behind the Pound Lane plan, said it would help ease automotive traffic and make life easier for the elderly.

But some locals argue that building a walkway would ruin the historic neighborhood, the first area settled by Chinese on Hong Kong Island.

"Building an escalator will just encourage more overdevelopment in an area that is grossly overdeveloped," said
John Batten,
a resident who lives next to Pound Lane and is an organizer of the Central & Western Concern Group. "We need quiet low-rise areas to allow airflow and visual relief."

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